DO YOU HEAR WHAT I HEAR?

Do you hear what I hear?

 

Probably not.

We might have heard the same word or same big booming sound.......but then we add our own experiences to the word or event and each heart hears or pays attention somewhat differently.

For me, that's the way God's word is. As I read it, I ask Him to speak uniquely to me. 

Passages take on meaning that go directly to my heart. Maybe that's why there are different versions and commentaries on the same passages of Scripture. (2 Timothy 3:16) Even the same passage can take on new meaning as I refocus on it during a different season of life.

Sometimes God's word whispers to me through the Psalms. Other times God's word SHOUTS to me as in 2 Chronicles 2:20.

I want my heart to hear God's heart.

CHRISTMAS DAY : HOLYDAY

Auto-correct doesn't want to accept holyday! Probably because it is not "politically correct".

Earlier this month I came across the term in a Carol Mead devotional. Her reference was to the "gift of peace" from Psalm 122:6-8. The passage resonated with me as I often pray for the peace of Jerusalem.

But God....in His love and mercy showed me how easily it is for the holidays to become crazy busy with worries about perfection....aka all about me. Will others appreciate my gifts or see them as hokey? Will my food at the Sunday School party be a hit? Will it look festive? Will no one even taste it? 

Conviction---the holidays are not about me. God showed me in a very clear way. 

In order to "de-sensitive" (a Mead word) transitory things, I need to take the I out of holiday.

H o l I d a y. My focus has been on myself. A substitution is needed.

If one exchanges the I for a Y, the focus changes & the substitution is worthy.

H o l Y d a y

Y is the Hebrew word for Yeshua or Jesus the One whose death was our substitutionary atonement and whose birth Christians celebrate at Christmas! My Jewish friends might substitute their Y as for Yahweh but they would not say it aloud.

One of my greatest joys is to see family, friends & others seek Jesus......

and to rejoice when they find Him. I know no greater joy! (3 John 1:4)

Today to my family friends and blog readers, I pray that there will be peace within you---a deep, abiding peace from Jehovah, the One True God.

Happy Holyday!

Spiritual For-TEA-tude

My son, be attentive to my words; incline your ear to my sayings. Let them not escape from your sight; keep them within your heart. For they are life to those who find them, and healing to all their flesh. (Proverbs 4:20-22, ESV)

I have prayed the Proverb that coincides with each of my kids' (and now their spouses and grands) birthdays for as long as I can remember.

Attentiveness comes from being in God's word. How else does one know what God is saying. "Incline your ear, and hear the words of the wise, and apply your heart to my knowledge," (Proverbs 22:17) is prayed often for those born on the 22nd.

Love the marks on the inside.

"A well worn Bible is sign of a well fed soul," as the saying goes. And when it's a son's Bible, it warms the mother's heart more than any cuppa.